joining us now is steve kornacki, host of "the cycle." steve, it's good to see you. empty threats? or are we in uncharted obstruction territory? >> i don't think it's uncharted yet. i'm curious to see how it plays out. i think in terms of the republicans unifying in opposition, it's more likely in the case of hagel than lew, but we'll see how that plays out. i don't pick up yet in either case on the threat of what could kill either of these nominations that would be a filibuster there is a sense in hagel, even if he had all the republicans, all 45 of them say they are against him, there will be still be up or down. so maybe 55-45, maybe one democrat will peel off. the longer term threat here is this. what we've already experienced in the last four years is that the republicans in some very sort of troubling ways have changed the behavior enormous for congressional parties. you look at how they have treated the debt ceiling. they tried to claim that as a legitimate bargaining tool. you look what the senate republicans have down with the filibuster, taking extremes we have not seen b